SECURE TRUCK PARKING
15
and, it goes without saying that we intend to certify all these parkings according to the TAPA PSR programme.”
Offering secure parking alone, however, is no guarantee of success. Parking places must cater for all the needs of their customers. In order to attract HGVs to visit their secure truck parking sites, operators must firstly demonstrate they provide the comfort and hygiene facilities truck drivers need when they take mandatory rest breaks.
Ton says: “In isolation, security, although representing the highest investment and the majority of operational costs, only appeals to a minority of users transporting high value loads. In this regard, TAPA offers us essential help on two issues; one, it allows us to see which part of these high investments and operational costs make sense to offer the proper level of security to driver, truck and cargo. Secondly, it’s the ideal party to inform its large membership base of what’s being offered, and guides traffic seeking security to our sites.”
A marathon, not a sprint
While Truckparkings Rotterdam Exploitatie BV, and the other PPOs currently participating in TAPA’s PSR programme, clearly understand
these benefits, there are still plenty of factors holding back the expansion of the secure truck parking industry as a whole. TAPA EMEA is committed to making a strong contribution to building a far greater volume of secure parking sites but the numbers remind everyone this journey is a marathon, not a sprint. First the encouraging news; PSR is already the most adopted secure truck parking standard in the region and TAPA’s Security Parking Online Tool (SPOT) now gives the Association’s members visibility of 75 sites offering a total of 7,636 parking places in 14 countries – Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain and
the United Kingdom. Now the reality check; TAPA estimates the current level of demand for secure truck parking to be equal to 2,000 sites and 400,000 parking places. The gap represents a significant opportunity for PPOs but, as Ton Barten says, there are plenty of hurdles standing in the way.
“Expansion in the truck parking market is rather slow for a number of reasons. First of all, there is the likelihood of a complicated business case where investors hesitate to provide finance. The road transport business is seen to be primarily a cost cutting industry, which by nature will avoid additional parking costs. Furthermore, we do have to realise that there are plenty of truck parking operators struggling to make ends meet, which increases the feeling of risk amongst investors.
“The other reason is the difficulty of finding the best locations,” he says. “One has to come to terms with the fact that turning a greenfield development into a secure truck parking is, in most cases, not the most economical use of available land. Truck parking initiatives are typically driven by the necessity of having facilities available as part of a larger development or economic activity but very rarely are they seen as the best available option for greenfield land.”
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